Nicki Minaj checked in with Audacy's DJ Buck & Friends and straight up, nothing was off limits. Chatting it up about what she’s been up to and what’s to come. So without further ado, let’s get into it.
LISTEN NOW: Nicki Minaj talks with DJ Buck & Friends
Audibly hype about her new record, “Do We Have A Problem,” that she’s about to drop, Nicki assured DJ Buck that when it comes to releasing songs, she gets the same amount of excited every time. Yes, even this far into her incredible career.
“What we do, we do to make other people happy.” And despite her feeling satisfied she did a good job on a record, Nicki noted, “the ultimate test is to see how them people react.” Adding, “so yes of course, you always gonna get nervous with every release.”
We know it might be hard to remember a time before Nicki had a long list of hit records, major success and mega millions, but alas that time did exist. Inviting Minaj to take a trip down memory lane, Buck asked her about that first time she ever stepped in a recording studio booth, and if she remembers what it felt like.
She recalled, “I remember I went to the studio with this dude in my neighborhood, and he just wanted me to sing a chorus on a song. And while he was in the booth, I don’t know why, I started writing a little rap, and I was like ‘can I do the rap?’” Nicki admitted that she honestly didn’t think he’d be down, but to her surprise he was, and let her do her thing.
“So I went in there,” Nicki continued, “and I remember just feeling this instant gratification once they played it back. They was playing it on the block and people started bopping to it and I was like I could not believe it… So yeah I remember that feeling, I remember it was one of the greatest feelings in the beginning of my career.”
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These days, Nicki is very far from those beginning days, and while she doesn’t have the struggles that come with breaking through doors, she’s faced with a different kind of struggle, that if you ask us, she manages VERY well. The struggle we speak of of course is the work Nicki puts in to remain the Queen, relevant and on top.
“What I will say is that, never take for granted — and I think this started happening maybe like a few years ago and now people are seeing. Never take for granted how in tune your audience really is. Never think that people don’t peep everything.”
She went on, “The thing is… It will always come back, when people talk at the end of the day, it will always come back to just talent, just talent, right? And I think that talent plus drive, and then that x-factor with me was the genuine, genuine, authentic relationship that I built with my fanbase at an early stage of my career… It’s easy for people to tell when you’re authentic about something… with my fans, before I had anything, before I had any gold plaques or platinum plaques, I was showing them that genuine love, so that was already stamped.”
Comparing her come-up to things that are done these days, Nicki said, “I think now when people come into the game, they try to microwave a fanbase and give a bunch of people a name and say those are my fans and that’s that.” The problem with that Nicki noted is that, “those people, they’re not really connecting to you. They might be connecting to the moment, but the key is to find a group of people that find themselves in you, because they will connect with you. So I may not always drop the best song, may not always say or look the best, or whatever. But my people, they connect with me because of that very beginning stage that we built and I think that has a lot to do with it.”
One of the main differences between her generation of artists and newer artists is the rise to the current relevance and significance of social media. “Artists had to make sure that verse was fire back then. The reason you had to make sure your verse was fire was because you didn’t have no Instagram to shake your a** on… or put out a gimmick, it wasn’t about how many likes your picture got Back then, when artists went in the booth they wanted to murder everything, that’s what we were doing it for… Why would you want to rap, if you don’t want to body your verse? Rap has now become a means to an end for people to become famous or get attention.”
But don’t get it twisted, Nicki’s not dogging on those differences, saying, “some people got a dope vibe, and they might not be able to spit the illest 16, but something about them is just ill. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that, we always had those, those you know personalities. But to answer the question, that’s what’s the difference."
Reflecting on the first time she hit the stage when the crowd knew all her lyrics and recited them back to her, is something Nicki could best describe as “a rush.” Adding, “I lost it, in my head I was like there’s no way these people know my song… from freaking MySpace?! Like it was the best feeling in the world."
Well, at least up until that point in her life. These days Nicki would most likely say being a mother takes that title. Speaking on her journey to motherhood, and what the experience has been like for her, Nicki repeatedly called it “a blessing.”
"Oh my god, my son, he’s a blessing to mama, mama loves him very much, he makes me very happy, and he helps me to understand what life is really about.”
She continued, “When I look at my son, sometimes when I’m stressing about something, I look at my son and I realize, ‘what you mad at? Like look at what God blessed you with. This is the ultimate blessing of the universe. There’s no greater blessing. There’s none. You can’t think of one greater blessing that the universe gives us as human beings.’ So I will just say that it’s been a great experience. I'm learning a lot, I’m laughing a lot…” And then on queue her son Jeremiah let out some adorable baby noises in the background like he knew he was being talked about. Which checks, because as Nicki shared, “he is a showoff, he want all eyes on him…”
As far as how motherhood has changed the way she looks at and approaches music, Nicki said “I’m freestyling more… but in terms of the music I would say (heads up this an exclusive, as she admitted she hasn't said this to anybody else) this album will be "the closest thing we’ll ever get to Pink Friday 2.0.” Hinting she’s even “thinking about going that route with the name.” Relating her current process to how she used to work on her mixtapes back in the day, she focusing less on overthinking and just having fun.
Speaking of motherhood, despite hanging out with Rihanna and A$AP Rocky last December (we know because she posted about it), Nicki said she had no idea about RiRi’s soon to be growing baby bump. That said, she did funnily enough tell Rocky to get Rihanna pregnant, to which Rih was like “why you worrying about my ovaries girl.” Totally not salty about not getting the scoop back then, Nicki noted she is “so happy for both of them.”
Aside from dropping “Do We Have A Problem,” and eventually more music, other things Nicki has on her to do list include having more children (because her son needs a sibling, duh), and possibly more movies.
If you want the deets, check out the entire interview. And to get hype for her new single which btw if you didn’t know features Lil Baby, check out the music video trailer for “Do We Have A Problem” above.
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